Commercial and residential buildings, such as for example, offices, homes and apartments are formed from various structures that define interior spaces within the building. Non-limiting examples of the various structures include walls, windows, floors, crawl spaces and roofs. In addition to defining the building's interior spaces, the various structures can separate air located within the building's interior spaces with air external to the building.
In certain instances, the internal air may be conditioned for desired characteristics, such as for example, temperature and humidity qualities. In these instances, the energy efficiency of these buildings can be affected by insulating the various structures separating the internal air from the external air.
Another structure commonly formed within buildings is an attic stairway. The attic stairway is intended to provide access from a lower level of the building to an upper level, such as an attic. An attic stairway can be formed with an opening in a floor of the attic and an associated attic stair. The attic stair can be formed as a set of stairs that extend from the attic to a lower level of the building. In certain instances, the attic stair can be configured to contract to a nested arrangement in the attic floor.
While it is known to insulate attic floors to provide a desired thermal insulative value (R-value), it has been difficult to insulate attic stairways to provide thermal insulative values that are equivalent to the thermal insulative values of the insulation material applied to the attic floors surrounding the attic stairway.
It would be advantageous if attic stairways could be insulated more effectively.